"Hey, dad!" Jane knocked on the doorway the next day, drawing her father's attention away from his writing and to her. "Me and Jacob are just gonna hang out with each other, okay?"

Mr. Portman hardly looked up. "Okay..."

-----

"Come on, everyone's waiting for you!" Emma was the first to greet the twins on the opposite side, grinning with wild abandon.

"Us?" Jacob looked behind him, as if checking for another person.

"No, the pigs," Emma replied dryly as she put her hands on her hips. Jane snorted.

Emma took Jacob's hand and led him to the house. Jane felt a pang in her chest, like a tiny wood carver was going to town on the inside of her. She knew she shouldn't ought to feel bad, seeing as Jacob was finally going to have a shot at a relationship, Jane just knew it. And, of course, now Jacob was going to have new experiences with a new person. There'd be things he wouldn't tell her anymore.

Jane hurriedly shook her head. Don't get ahead of yourself, there. There's still time...

She followed the two inside, where Jacob was bugging Emma about the show.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Oh, get a room."

(Time Skip bc I'm incredibly lazy and also bc you should read the book before reading this, Just saying)

Emma finally rallied up the older kids to go swimming, (lending a swimsuit to Jane before they left,) and they all left, with Jane and Jacob covered in towels to cover up their future clothes.

Millard predicted several things inside the village, and Jane proved to be an entertaining audience for the invisible boy.

"That's so awesome!" Jane said after Millard had done quite a few.

"I'm glad someone appreciates my work," Millard replied, and Enoch stuck out his tongue.

Soon, all the children were happily swimming, giggiling like mad and bumping into each other.

"Sorry, Mill!" Jane laughed as she collided with him.

"No worries," he replied. If Jane had known him better, she might have known that he was smiling.

As Jacob acted as a powerful oracle to the majority of the children, Millard used Jane like a Google search bar. Jane tried to answer as many questions as possible, trying to recall the outcome of World War Two, when Youtube was invented, and who won the superbowl in 2004.

Yet soon, the questions started to become quite personal.

"Do you have many friends back home?" Millard asked, his arms supporting him from behind.

"Not a single one," Jane answered, looking skyward.

Millard started to doodle with one of his hands in the sand absently before questioning her again. "Have you ever liked someone?"

"Huh?"

"I-nevermind." Though Jane tried to get him to say what he was going to say, he had moved on.

-----

The large group had started to head back. Jane walked side by side with Millard, because Jacob had wanted to go with Emma instead.

"So..." Jane always was terribly awkward in these situations. When you want to speak to a guy and he's quiet and so are you, and your brother ditched you?

Hey, that was how Jane had met her last girlfriend.

"Er, how are you?" Jane asked him. Oh just great, you knob-

"Tired, mostly," Millard said. Jane believed him to be yawning.

Jane nodded as fast as she could. "Honestly, same."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I understand what you are feeling and I relate."

"Oh."

Jane shrugged. "I can help you understand future lingo if you want."

"Great! When can we start?" Millard seemed excited at this new prospect, and Jane could almost feel his beam.

"How about tomorrow?" Jane asked, and Millard assented.

"Did you see that?" Millard whispered to Jane after a while.

"No, what?" Jane turned around, just in time to see Emma kissing Jacob's cheek. "Ohhh."

"Are you okay?" Millard said, sounding nervous.

"I-yeah, it's just..." Jane searched for the words to say. "I just kind of hope he won't leave me out of his life and stuff now. Y'know?"

"Yes, I do."

"And I mean, Jacob and Emma are cute, but...I wish I wasn't so...lonely and stuff. Y'know?"

"Well, it's rather alright. Besides," Millard chuckled to himself. "Someone just might show interest soon enough."

"Yeah, but who?" Jane sighed.

Millard didn't answer, but he did take her hand silently.

And that was good enough for Jane.